Finally I find the time to write about my experience in Tayrona National Park. After a short flight from Bogotá to Santa Marta on Thursday, 2nd June, Mauricio and I arrived in Santa Marta, heading towards Tayrona National Park. Since this was my first great trip of my summer holidays, I was expecting a lot of sunny days. Well, upon our arrival I needed to realize that this dream would not become true that night, since it was raining cats and dogs. However, the temperature was around 30 degrees but it was assumed to improve. Since Santa Marta does not have a boat service to the park, we had to stay in Taganga, a very tiny city, which basically only had one big street. After a short period of searching, we found our hotel to stay for the night. Unfortunately, the most fanciest hostel I have ever seen, did not have more "habitaciones" (it looked like a great castle, with a huge swimming pool and around 50 rooms...).
The next day, after having a nice breakfast for 2€(!) we got on the boat, which already turned out to be
our first adventure for the day. With about 10 other tourists we raced towards our final destination- the Cabo beach in the national park. First of all, we were looking for the reception in order to book our hammocks. These were located on a huge rock, as you can see in the picture. When we arrived at the reception, there was a guy, lying in a hammock, providing us with some info. He seemed not very happy about the fact that he needed to work that day. Ok, I could understand that, since it was very hot, the sun was shining and the humidity contributed to the desire of going to the beach and doing nothing, what we actually did then :-D! At a certain point, Mauricio and I had had enough sun(burn), so we decided to eat some fish (which turned out to be not the last one in Tayrona). After having experienced a very windy and freezing night, we booked a tent for the two succeeding nights, because even a sweater and long trousers have not prevented us from getting cold.
The following day, we agreed that lying at the beach was nice, but that we should rather go and discover the park that day. Consequently, we started to explore further beaches and other areas of Tayrona. Firstly, we came along various bays, then we also had to climb some rocks and pass the Colombian jungle. This was an exciting walk as we encountered various animals and plants that I have never seen before.
Subsequently, after a 3 hours walk, we reached our lunch destination, a five star hotel in the middle of nowhere. Upon a recommendation of a friend, we both ordered some ultra delicious but still affordable meals (fish and brownies afterwards- both as part of very exotic creations). While we were eating our fish and watching at a group of around 50 beautiful women, all wearing white sports clothes (this seemed to have been a congress), it suddenly started raining (around 3 p.m.). First cats and dogs then Colombian elephants!!! This monsoon like rain became heavier and heavier, even when we thought no increase was possible anymore…This was actually the first real rain that we encountered during overall lovely days.
Therefore, we were aware of the fact that we should rather hurry up with going back to our camp. Since we knew that there is a possibility of riding back on horses, we went to the reception and asked where we can find these. Besides the weather, we both were exhausted by the last walk, so a consensus about the means of the return transportation was found fast. At the counter we were told though that due to the bad conditions the horses would probably not go that far and that a night at the hotel would cost 220€. Hence, we tried to find the people with the horses to convince them to bring us home soon. After a medium long walk through an entirely flooded forest (water up to our knees), we found them. First these people did not want to provide us with horses, but afterwards they were willing to do so, charging us 15% more. While Mauricio got a horse called “Negro” (The black), mine had such a complicated name that I decided to call it “caballo” (horse) :-D! So we started a journey through the jungle that I will never forget in my life.
In the beginning, we only crossed some narrow paths that were very steep.
Afterwards, we came by huge rocks but our horses basically went everywhere, even if we believed that particular ways could only be passed by walk. After a very funny and enjoyable ride, although my horse, while running quite fast, rapidly decided to go via short cuts various times, being totally careless about the fact that a 1,89m guy is sitting on his back and that breaches hitting the my head might hurt, we came to a river that was totally flooded. There, the water went up to the first horses neck. So, like in a movie, the two people who accompanied us said: “ We cannot pass this, we have to wait until tonight or tomorrow morning” This made me really assume that I had become part of a cowboy movie. Even though the river was next to another camp, we did not want to stay there, because we were entirely wet and our clothes all were in Cabo. Therefore, we asked, respectively Mauricio, since I could not follow the pace of the Costeños’ Spanish, whether there is not a way to get back. “The Colombian Messi”, one of our guides, responded that we could try to swim through the river and then let the horses follow solely. This seemed to be an acceptable idea, especially since we luckily packed our cameras and our money into a plastic back, when leaving the hotel. After passing the river, we went to the people’s house, in the middle of the jungle, and “Loco” (Crazy) arranged two new horses, as our horses finally could not pass, due to the massive water currents. Although we supposed that everything was fine now, we encountered another river shortly afterwards. This was even bigger and the currents were even heavier. Obviously, this situation was not contributing to our good mood. Although the situation was very weird, the fact that on the other bank another German was waiting with his wife and a donkey with all his property, was quite entertaining.
As “Loco” suggested waiting an hour so that the water level has decreased, we kept staring at the other people, creatively thinking about a way to cross. Since no improvement of the conditions was expected, after about 50 minutes, one of the guys passed the river somehow. Consequently, the other guy quickly arranged a rope that we could use to pass the river, because it seemed that they did not expect us to be capable of crossing the river without. Although this sound like a brief activity, this took anther 40 minutes. Meanwhile it had become totally dark, we did not have any flashlights/torches, were entirely wet, needed to swim/pass that river and did not have the slightest idea, how to come back to our camp. After having arrived to the other side, the other German was told not to cross. While we could leave our horses behind, he needed the donkey with all his stuff in order to be able to leave to Santa Marta, where he had already booked a hotel.
Although Mauricio and I wanted to accompany this guy, his wife, the donkey and a travel guide, “Loco and Messi” insisted upon guiding us, since they also had a flashlight. They even wanted to give us our money back, but we were just happy that we had two locals to help us and denied. So we started our walk, taking another route than the people with the donkey, since we did not have appropriate shoes, but only slippers. We passed by various houses, were offered coffee in small shot glasses by other locals and kept on running barefooted through the Colombian jungle. Although we encountered various frogs, cancers and crabs, we were just happy that it stopped raining and we were approaching our camp.
Consequently, the next two days were just predetermined for lying at the beach and doing nothing. We went to the beach, took some pictures on the huge rocks and went back in the boat on Monday again, which was actually overfilled.
Upon our arrival in Santa Marta, we got to know one Swedish and one Norwegian guy who advised us to go to the hostel “la brisa loca”, which was also awesome. There we also had a great day.
So Overall, this was an awesome trip and I hope that I will encounter many more holidays like that in the future!
See you soon!
Flo
Cool adventure dude !
ReplyDeleteReal cool!
ReplyDelete